London skyscraper The Gherkin goes into receivership

The Gherkin, voted London's favourite skyscraper, has been put into receivership 10 years after its completion helped transform the capital's skyline.

The 41-storey City of London landmark is likely to be put up for sale shortly and is expected to attract offers of more than £550 million (HK$7.1 billion) from Middle Eastern and Asian sovereign wealth funds.

Deloitte, appointed to take control of the tower, said the Gherkin's co-owners - a Mayfair-based investment bank and a German property investor, IVG Immobilien - had run into problems related to currency issues, rather than any difficulties with the wider property market.

Changing exchange rates had inflated the size of the original loan and the owners failed to make several debt payments.

Phil Bowers, one of the Deloitte receivers, said: "This is a building in trophy condition whose space is 99 per cent leased.

"The multicurrency deal that financed The Gherkin has been affected by the substantial appreciation of the Swiss franc against the pound." The first 15 floors of the Norman Foster-designed skyscraper are occupied by the insurer Swiss Re, which originally owned the building.

It sold out to IVG and its investment bank partner, Evans Randall, in 2007 for £630 million.